Exploring the Countryside - Our Last day in scotland

All total, we had a little over 48 hours in Scotland. Most of that was spent in Edinburgh,  but on our last day I wanted to cross something off my bucket list: going to Lockerbie, Scotland. I am not by any means a genealogy nut,  but for some reason I've always wanted to go to the town where my name and ancestors came from - so that was the agenda for part of our last day in Scotland.

We started the morning in the Witchery, where we discovered that our included "continental breakfast" was in fact a room service breakfast delivered to the fancy dining table in our suite.

We had been warned (both by family members who had been there and the strange looks people in Edinburgh gave us when we told them where we were stopping) that Lockerbie was a tiny town without a lot to see.

I'm still not sure we were prepared to find the town so sleepy that the town square was covered in statues...of sheep. Other than a pretty church or two, it was, as expected,  just a quiet little town. We took off walking to see the visitor center, which was about half a mile outside of town. I learned a little bit more about my family history there, but mostly we both enjoyed the peaceful scenery after the hustle of Edinburgh.

A Not - so Whirlwind Tour of Edinburgh

When Patrick and I planned this trip, we both knew that there was a good chance that we wouldn't feel like we had enough time in any city. It took us all of 18 hours in Edinburgh to see just how true that was.

We had a list of things we wanted to do or see, from the traditional visit to the castle, several different museums and Scotch tastings to hikes to a nearby park with great views. On Sunday, we planned on visiting the castle, touring the botanical gardens and National Museum, going on a Scotch "tour" with tastings and information about making Scotch, and finishing off with dinner at our fun, fancy hotel. A whirlwind tour, but one that would give us a taste of all the things we had heard were great about Edinburgh.

What did we actually do? ...we slept in (which was wonderful after spending most of the "night" on the plain and wandering through Edinburgh). We had a long, leisurely breakfast where I discovered that Scotland makes some amazing pastries. And then, we spent 5 hours wandering through the (really cool) castle. By the time we left, the museum, botanical gardens and Scotch tour were all closed. Since we couldn't leave Scotland without drinking some Scotch, we walked the few extra steps to the whiskey bar next door to our hotel (the one where the walls were lined with the 3300 different varieties of Scotch they offered) and enjoyed a tasting menu there instead. I'm sure based on its location that it was a tourist bar; but considering their selection we didn't care and enjoyed ourselves plenty for the few hours until our late dinner.

And finally, dinner and relaxing. This was our first "splurge" night of the vacation as we stayed in an amazing gothic suite at the Witchery.

Dinner was at the Witchery's restaurant, and was equally beautiful and inviting. I'll spare you the food photos, but it was amazing and by the time we were done (with both dinner and the bottle of champagne in our room!) it was far too late for our early morning, yet again. Next will be our last full day in the UK already!

Sorry for the Technical Difficulties

We learned on our first day that between some quirks of Blogger and of what each one of our phones would and wouldn't do, posting in the half hour or so that we had Internet might be difficult. Posts might come in batches of 4 or 5, but it looks like we might finally have the quirks worked out!

We Made it - All the Things I Missed Before

Considering the state of my brain on very little sleep and the depressing number of times I "lost" my camera or map in my pocket on Saturday, I'm pretty surprised that I kept it together enough to post anything but jibberish at 10 pm that night. (Moms-that one was for you, so you'd know that we didn't die!) Now that I'm a little more put together, here's a few of the more interesting highlights that we somehow stayed awake for that day.

We'd read that to get a great view of the city, you should climb a hill called Arthur's seat, which overlooks all of Old Town. At the time we arrived at our hotel, I had completely forgotten about this (as well as where the map and my cardigan had gone - for those of you who think I'm discombobulated and entertaining at 7 am, you should see me on hour 26 of not sleeping). When the concierge recommended that we go to a park a few miles away with a great view (and gave us a new map, which only Patrick was allowed to hold by now), we thought it was a great idea and took off.

It WAS a great walk, and we wandered by some fun things on the way.

The last bit was a little steep, but it felt great after so much sitting down.

And at the top, looking out over the scenery in 360 degrees, I noticed Arthur's Seat, dead ahead. Also-and I realize this may be difficult to see from the photos-WAY steeper, further away and more intimidating than the short little path lined with fun monuments and gardens that we had just climbed up. Coming from Minnesota where things are pretty much flat, this counts as a bit more than just a "hill" for me! We happily skipped it and instead enjoyed our easy view before heading off for a bit more exploring.

I'm pretty certain that its a "only in Scotland" moment to wander into a free concert by a band consisting of a drummer, electric guitarist and bagpiper. (Perhaps even more unusual, they were pretty good, with as unique a sound as I think you could expect from that combination!)

And finally, after about 5 miles of walking, a lot of glasses of wine (did I mention that we somehow ended up on a flight where all the liquor was complimentary? Too bad it didn't help us sleep like we hoped for), and eventually finding almost everything I lost, we got to fall asleep to get ready for the long list of things we'd found to do the next day.

We Made It!!

Just a quick note to say that we are safe and sound in Edinburgh at the end of our either a whirlwind Saturday or, from our perspective, a remarkably long Friday. (Turns out 9 years is a long time. Last time I flew across the Atlantic I was 21-and staying up for 34 hours straight was a whole lot less painful!) We're both plenty jet lagged and didn't get much (or any) sleep on the plane, but that didn't stop us from spending our day exploring Edinburgh.
We got in around  1 pm and immediately took off to keep ourselves awake by walking continually. While we haven't done any tours or been inside much, we walked around most of the old city, saw quite a few beautiful old monuments and have a great idea of what's on the top of the list for tomorrow - our second and last day in Edinburgh.

I hope to have some more details tomorrow: but I've now been up for 35 hours or so and that's more than enough for me!

A little bragging before we leave...

I try very hard not to brag about our trip. I know we're VERY lucky to be in a position that we can even consider a trip like this, and I remember feeling plenty envious of the people I've known who were able to do things like this before.

But I have to brag just a little bit. Because look at that!

 
I successfully fit everything Patrick and I need for four weeks into two carry on-sized suitcases. (This doesn't count Patrick's backpack full of camera stuff--that sort of thing is out of my control!) Even better; we both have a bit of extra space in our suitcases and my backpack is completely empty and ready to fill up with wine....I mean souvenirs. As someone who grew up packing as much as possible so there would NEVER be any chance I might need someone I didn't have, I think this is worth some bragging.

And to those of you who may be meeting us over there or as soon as we get home...the downside of packing light is that we don't have a lot of changes of clothes. So, sorry about the smell!

Kicking if Off

And we're off!

Well, almost--in three days we'll be leaving for a whirlwind European vacation that's been two years in the making. (With the two years we've been talking about this, I thought I'd feel more prepared three days before leaving!) Two years ago, saying we'd be gone for thirty days sounded ridiculous. We'd get homesick or bored--at the very least, we'd exhaust the things we wanted to do and not need to go back, right? Closer up, it turns out that thirty days isn't nearly enough. We will be flying (figuratively) through seven countries and I'm not sure there's a single place that we'll feel we've spent enough time. We'll be skipping through Scotland, England, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain; our longest stay in any one place will be six days. For the most part, we'll be in each place for two days.

For those of you joining us for the next month, we'll be posting stories and photos when we land in a hotel with free wifi and a few spare minutes. We're not planning on roughing it--we decided that we're too old to share a bathroom and so will be at hotels rather than hostels for the duration of the trip. Our hotels will range from a few very fancy ones to the cheapest centrally located room we could find: the only real requirements for us were a) NO reviews mentioning bedbugs, b) Our own bathroom, and c) Within walking distance of a good amount of what we wanted to do. It is, however, a carry-on-only journey--and except for the lack of clean laundry, I'm already expecting to feel like we have too much stuff.

So thank you for checking in: I hope you enjoy the pictures and stories! For those of you who want MORE pictures, don't worry--I'm sure Patrick would be more than happy to schedule a time for you to look through all 15,000 or so photos he'll take after we get home. See you all in October!